Chapter 31 - Skill Synergy

Waking up with the sun wasn’t something Nate had ever done back on Earth but it was fast becoming the norm on this new world. He supposed his heightened Constitution and Endurance might be factoring into that, making him require less sleep. Laying in bed, warm and comfortable beneath the furs, he stared at the ceiling thinking about his plans for the day. It was time to develop his Skills in preparation for his Class Evolution. It would’ve been better if he’d been able to do that more while doing other jobs for the Adventurers Guild, but Kiri had pointed out something he hadn’t considered.

Kiri’s Primary Class, which she’d chosen to reveal to him, was Arcane Archer. It was a Rare Class that she had evolved from her initial Uncommon Class of Skilled Archer. She’d noted that her class was primarily a combat class, and that most of her Skills leaned into the notion of battle. This meant that the easiest way for her to level her Skills was fighting. She could get some gains from training and sparring but the developments she had in the heat of the moment far surpassed those she got from practising her archery. However, from what she could see of Nate’s Class, it looked more like a crafting class. Focused around creating things, in his case runes. Frick had whispered in his mind that with his Runic Intent Skill, it might be closer to a hybrid Class. Nate brought up his character sheet with a thought.

The evidence to Frick’s point was pretty clear. The hybrid skills, as the Familiar had put it, were the most developed with Runic Intent at nine and Identification at twelve. While his more crafting specific Skills languished at a maximum of five. That leaned into the notion that the Class was at least partially hybrid, though definitely skewed towards crafting. Something he’d not had much time to do outside of preparing for one fight or the next.

Focusing on his Familiar Contract he could sense that Frick wasn’t too far away, likely on top of the roof of the Oaken Ring. He gave the Familiar Contract a mental nudge and felt Frick start to approach. Sitting up in bed he only had to wait a few seconds as a bird looking creature drifted down through the ceiling before morphing back into the blue goblin form that Frick favoured. He was still angry with the little Spirit for deceiving him, but he also wasn’t about to let that get in the way of his development.

Frick settled down on the bed. Eyes still downcast, the Familiar mumbled, “Nothing to report, boss man. Wasn’t much action last night.” The Familiar paused and grinned slightly, “Except for a couple in an alley entering the square. Guess she didn’t want her husband knowing, if you catch my drift.”

He knew Frick was trying to get their relationship back to where it was, with his little jokes, but for now Nate was all business. And today's business was Skill development. He took a moment framing his thoughts, what was it he needed to know? Skill Evolution and how to get to higher rarities was the most important, but what about his other Skills? Obviously there were benefits to developing them but was that all there was, or were there other considerations?

“I know I need to evolve my Improve Material Skill. But how do I push the rarity on it? And are there benefits beyond the improved bonuses and functionality of developing my other Skills?”

Frick got a serious look on his goblin face, “To develop a Skill properly and fully, you need to understand what the Skill is doing, how it is doing it, and then control to what extent it performs its task. If we look at your Improve Material Skill, we’d first ask what is it improving? Then we’d ask, how is it achieving the improvements it imparts, and finally can you control it to only improve the material in a specific way. That is enough to level a Skill and to get a good evolution.”

Frick paused a moment before continuing, “To push the rarity of a Skill, you need to push the boundaries of what the Skill does. In the case of Improve Material, you’d likely need to try and guide it to improve something it doesn’t already do. I’m not sure what that would look like.”

Nate gave that some consideration but decided he’d wait to really analyse the possibilities for expanding his Improve Material Skill.

“And developing my other Skills?” he asked.

“There is a benefit to developing your Skills beyond the obvious. Skill Synergy. When you evolve a Class or gain a new one, like your Secondary Class, it’s possible for Skills to have significant overlap. A great example is Identification Skills. They come in lots of specific flavours, but they’re all ultimately doing the same thing. When that happens, they can Synergise and form a new Skill.

“The new Skill is always of the highest rarity among the Skills that form the synergy, and they’re of the average level of the Skills. Now, for you right now, that probably wouldn’t be a big deal, but later when your Skill levels are in the fifties or higher? That is a big starting improvement. Nothing that can’t be overcome with time and effort, but easier to level a lower rarity Skill than a higher rarity one.”

That made sense to Nate. That meant he was better off levelling all his Skills as much as possible as his next Class would undoubtedly involve Runes.

There wasn’t much else to discuss and Nate just nodded before saying, “Thanks.”

“Any time, boss man. I might take a rest if that’s alright?” Frick asked.

“Go ahead,” he granted, Frick streaming into his chest and back into the Familiar Contract a moment later.

It didn’t take him long to get dressed and have his breakfast brought to his room, which meant that before he knew it he was walking into the Adventurer’s Guild, star embossed robe on and silken clothes beneath it. He felt, and looked, like some noble brat. Or so he thought. Either way it didn’t seem to faze Melinda as he met her at the front desk.

“Hey cutie, what can I do for you today?” she asked.

“I was wondering if there were any enchanting resources I had access to as a Bronze Badge holder? Guides specifically, or any other written training materials?” he asked.

She scrunched up her face for a moment thinking, “I’m not sure what materials we have, but Lorimer will. Head up the stairs one level and then turn right. That’ll take you to the library. Lorimer will tell you what he can provide, and how much it’ll cost.”

She finished with a smile and Nate thanked her before heading up the stairs. Opening the library door he found it to be a lot sparser than he’d expected. Used to the libraries on Earth that had hundreds to thousands of books, he found the Guild library had two bookcases totalling what he suspected was less than a hundred books.

The purple haired man he’d noted on his first night in the Adventurer’s Guild turned and smiled at him, walking over. He was pale skinned and Nate saw he had purple eyes to go with his purple hair. He would’ve guessed his age to be early thirties and he only came up to Nate's chin.

“The fresh faced Mage. I heard about the little disagreement you had at the desk with Torian. Good on you for standing up for your friend. I like those with a little spine and integrity. What brings you to my little nook?” the man asked.

“Lorimer, I assume?” Nate replied, to which he got an ‘mmhmm’.

“I was after guides or literature you had on Enchanting. Melinda said you’d be able to tell me what you had available, what I could access and how much it would cost?” Nate asked curiously.

“Oh, we don’t have much unfortunately. Just a basic guide on some simple sigils and material considerations for enchanting. Most people interested would seek an apprenticeship with an Enchanter. Are you looking into it for your Secondary Class?” Lorimer queried.

“Something like that. I’d like to read that guide, if possible.”

“Certainly. It’ll be three silver and it is yours for the day. It doesn’t leave this room though, understand? You can sit over there by the window. It gets good light through most of the day. Do ask if you have any questions or if there is anything else you’d like to read. And stay as long as you want, always nice to have a fresh face in here with me,” Lorimer finished with a friendly smile.

Nate handed over the silver and a moment later was holding a thin guide on enchanting. Less than forty pages but it was a start and if he didn’t find enough information in here he could always seek out that Enchanter in town that Kiri had mentioned. He was confident he had enough gold to entice some secrets out of them.

The first half of the book was outlining some basic sigils and with Identification flaring Nate managed to add a number of simple sigils to his repertoire, levelling the Skill in the process.

Water Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Wind Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Wood Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Shadow Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Light Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Gather Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Shape Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Cube Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Pyramid Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Sphere Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Cool Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Heat Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Identification – Runic Level 12 > 15

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

There had been other sigils, such as ones for directions and mana, but he’d found that not only were they different to the ones he already knew, they were of lower quality. This was his first instance of seeing two sigils that looked different, but according to his Identification, represented the same thing. Thankfully the second half of the book had the answer. A question he’d been wondering about for a while now. Why did sigils allow one to inject mana into them and create a specific effect?

The answer was what sigils represented. Concepts. Sigils were visual representations of concepts that existed. The guide got philosophical after that, talking about how it was sentient life that gave rise to concepts, and therefore a sigils potency was based on how entrenched the belief in the concept was in the minds of sentient life on a planetary scale.

Nate wasn’t so sure it was right about that. He had some life experience that said it might be more correct to say that it was on a multiversal scale, given his own experience of creating a rune in a Dead Realm. There was a note in the margin on the final page of the book, done in a different handwriting. ‘What about sigils of the same quality and representation but different appearance?’ it asked.

That was something Nate would look into, but first he’d need more sigils to work with. Either way the guide had given him exactly what he needed to work with. A path forward for Improve Material. He’d need to experiment a bit first but he had a hypothesis that certain crafting materials were more suited to certain types of enchantments, or runes in his case, based on their innate properties. A Conceptual predisposition if you will. What if he could impart such a predisposition with his Improve Material skill? That would be an extension of what it currently did. Closing the guide he glanced at his latest notification and smiled.

Runic Knowledge 4 > 7

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

It wasn’t even lunch time and he was already off to a good start for the day. Walking back to Lorimer he held out the book.

“Done already? That was fast. Much faster than I was expecting. Even this basic guide is quite dense for most people. If it’s not prying too much, have you spent some of your free stats on Intellect?” Lorimer inquired, holding the book in his hands as he gazed up at Nate.

Nate considered not answering, but decided it couldn’t hurt and the question seemed innocent enough.

“I’m a little above average I think, in Intellect,” he replied.

“Wonderful. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in getting dinner together and perhaps getting to know each other a little better?” Lorimer asked.

It took Nate a moment to process that and he realised that Lorimer was asking him out on a date, “Ah, no. Thank you though. I’m err… very flattered.”

Lorimer sighed a little, “A shame for me. I thought perhaps… when Melinda said Kiri and yourself seemed more like friends than lovers. Was there anything else you needed from the library today?”

Nate felt a little awkward, even if it seemed Lorimer had taken the rejection in stride. He just shook his head in response to the question.

“Well, stop by anytime if you have more questions that our humble library might assist with. Or if you require a message to be sent to another town or city. I handle communications with our other Guild Houses,” Lorimer gave him a smile before turning around and placing the guide back on one of the two shelves.

Nate quickly left the library and headed out of the Guild and into the square. Searching through the market it didn’t take him long to find what he needed. Materials. More importantly, small samples of materials, such as wood, leather and even some animal scales, some of which looked like they might be from a Razorlash. He focused on getting small pieces, no larger than his hand, and made sure to get some different varieties. After his collection started to build he was forced to buy a leather satchel to avoid revealing his spatial storage. At one of the two weapon vendors he managed to procure a couple of knives meant for woodcarving. Finally satisfied he had enough materials to work with he returned to the Oaken Ring. There was just one thing left to purchase.

The taproom was decently full as it was around lunch time and it seemed Valeria wasn’t lying about how much the townsfolk loved her chef, the tables filled with people eating various dishes. Valeria presided over the whole thing from behind the bar and Nate approached her there.

“Back so soon, sir? You were out the door before I knew it,” she said, making polite conversation.

“I had a few things to take care of at the Guild. I’ve a couple of questions though.”

Valeria just smiled, brushing some brown hair behind her ear and motioning one of her staff at a particular table before she turned back to him waiting for him to continue.

“I’d like to pay for another seven nights. If that is agreeable? And I am wondering if you can have any of your staff make some purchases for me?” he asked.

“You’re definitely welcome to stay another seven nights at the same price, sir. As for the purchases, it depends what you were after? If my staff can’t handle it, I can potentially find someone who can.”

Nate smiled, reaching into his robe and his spatial storage to take out two more gold coins, placing them on the counter. Then he described what he wanted Valeria to purchase for him. The look on her face went from surprise, to flirtatious before she blushed and nodded, asking if there was a price limitation. There wasn’t. Not for this.